Newsletter April 2017

Rome Meeting 2017, EUNET

On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Treaties of Rome, our partner organisation, EUNET, held its 2017 spring meeting in the Italian capital, where Ifor Molenhuis represented IUC. The question of how do we tackle the challenges of Euroscepticism and Nationalism in our educational work, and what role EUNET should play in these efforts for the next three years, served as a basis for the discussions. A number of concerns arising from the ever-shifting political landscape in Europe were addressed in a World Cafe to allow for an effective and flexible exchange of perspectives. With a view to the European Parliament elections in 2019, participants examined which of EUNET’s previously defined goals should be moved up the priority ladder and what new alternatives to the way we approach our work should be considered.

A summary of the discussions in Rome will be presented during our vision seminar in mid-June.

Training Course “Digital Creative Methods”

The EUNET Youth Committee invited representatives of IUC to its new training course, which will take place in Altenkirchen (Westerwald), Germany from Thursday 20th to Sunday 23rd April 2017. The training course will deal with ‘digital creative methods’ in the field of non-formal education, focusing on the innovative method of ‘geocaching’. One special day will be conducted and animated by Andreas Christ, General Manager at edu:impact and an experienced user of this method.

Lea Krusell and Tobias Ravn Thomsen will participate on behalf of IUC.

Vision Seminar – Copenhagen, 17 June

We are pleased to inform that steady and noticeable progress is being made towards seeing a project of ours to its final stage. In relation to our Vision seminar, scheduled to take place on the 17th of June, Nina Nørgaard will meet with Waves Project Managers Andreas Guidi and Christin Knüpfer in Berlin to discuss future developments of Waves of Democracy. Stay tuned for updates!

Meanwhile, you might want to revisit Andreas and Christin’s reflections on Waves 2015 that first appeared as featured interviews in our monthly newsletter.

Youth on the Move/Sønderborg 2018 The Model European Parliament in Sønderborg was a great success – Opening Ceremony in the castle, professional committee work, sightseeing in beautiful weather, performance in the new culture house/library, parliament in Alsion and much more – students and teachers had a very good time, staying with host families and in…

Waves 2018 – What’s next? IUC wishes you a happy Easter – and spring time – and promises bustling agendas as always. Waves 2018 has kept us busy with a load of responsibilities and issues to sort through. An important milestone has been reached with regards to the Erasmus + application, in the end we…

Waves of Democracy 2018 – Next Steps An academy that has garnered heaps of praise and is considered IUC’s signature piece on a mosaic of national and international long-term youth projects in the fields of teaching/learning, non-formal (political) education, citizenship and integration, has moved past the initiation stage and we are now working on turning…

Waves of Democracy – Berlin, scheduled for May 18 – 23, 2018 The tentative dates of WoD 2018 have been settled, in collaboration with the European Academy in Berlin and our project managers – Ifor Molenhuis, Andreas Guidi and Christin Knüpfer. An informal meeting was recently held in Berlin between IUC´s director Nina Nørgaard and…

Off to an auspicious start We have had quite a charged up first month of 2017 – reflecting, considering and generating new ideas that will set the tone for our project work for the year ahead. Of course, we would prioritise projects that are already underway and rest on established foundations, though we have dabbled with the idea…

“Teamwork makes the dreamwork” The 45th session of Model European Parliament, held in Copenhagen from the 29th of October to the 5th of November, is a testament to the latter. We saw the coming together of bright young minds from 30 countries across Europe and beyond to discuss some pressing issues which appear on the…

A project over which we laboured long and hard is about to take shape in concrete form and we are delighted to report that we have resumed work on MEP Copenhagen. MEP Copenhagen: October 29 – November 5 Staff of IUC-Europe has been proud to actively involve itself in the lengthy preparations of Model…

Summing up the merry month of May, we present you with our findings from Youth on the Move and IUC’s work on MEP Copenhagen, which is months away from completion but well under way. 6th of May We kicked the month off splendidly by hosting our long awaited seminar – Youth on the Move.…

This month’s briefing will address IUC’s upcoming seminar, Youth on the Move, in further detail by lifting the curtain on what is currently taking place behind closed doors. For this purpose, we have Ifor Molenhuis - a key figure in the planning and execution of the seminar - sit with us and discuss the preparatory…

How do we tackle the challenges of Migration, Euroscepticism and Nationalism in the educational work we are engaged in? That question would be driving the agenda of a seminar, hosted by our partner organisation – EUNET, which is to take place from the 9th to the 11th of March in Vienna.

In the second instalment of our monthly briefings, we will introduce the reader to two other characters, who stood behind the successful planning, execution, monitoring and closure of Waves of Democracy, namely Andreas Guidi and Christin Knüpfer.

The following section is where I am supposed to broadcast my message and share my experiences.For the sake of simplicity, I will do my best to keep it short and sweet with a touch of personality. I hope that you find our monthly briefing interesting and useful.